


New Year, New Us.

by Nerd_alert19



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, New Years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:36:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22081186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerd_alert19/pseuds/Nerd_alert19
Summary: A New Year's fic set in the very beginning of Season 4....obviously takes a more Philinda appropriate path.
Relationships: Phil Coulson/Melinda May
Comments: 15
Kudos: 72





	New Year, New Us.

**Author's Note:**

> Planned to post this in time for New Year's Day but life happened. I considered just saving it but decided to just go ahead and post it anyway in case I wasn't the only one who needed a little fluff.

She let out a frustrated sigh as she once again saw the error message pop up on her screen. 

“Unable to connect,” she muttered and closed her laptop in frustration. 

This would make the second holiday that Phil had missed while on deployment and she tried to push away the disappointment. When she realized he would miss Christmas, she had gone to spend the time checking in on her father and had reasoned that at least they would get to spend New Years together. The morning briefing with Director Mace had made her aware that he and Mack would still be out another two weeks, and now she couldn’t even get a hold of him to say hello and see how he was. 

She missed her best friend. 

This is by far the longest they had been apart since they had formed their ragtag team and she realized the distance and time apart was reiterating feelings she thought she had long since locked away. 

She refused to sit around and pout, or worse, think about her growing feelings, so she decided to get in a workout. She made her way to the locker room to change and smiled softly to herself as she saw Fitz and Jemma in the lab happily debating something she didn’t even care to understand. She had just reached the locker room when Agent Piper stopped her. 

“The Director wants to see you..., ma’am,” she said while standing at attention. She had to hide the smile at how stiff her young rookie was around her. A little fear and respect were healthy towards a commanding officer.

She nodded to Piper and turned to make her way to the director’s office. 

“Ah, Agent May, come in!” He said as she gave a dark stare to the security officer blocking her path. He moved out of her way without even sparing her a glance and she mentally went through all of the ways she’d like to take him out. 

She stood before the director’s desk waiting to hear why he had summoned her and she once again hid a smirk. A little fear and respect from her commanding officer was healthy as well. 

“Ah, yes….umm….Agent May, I’m sending you to check out a potential 0-8-4 that’s been located in Canada. A Quinjet is already being prepped for your departure. Should be wheels up in twenty.” He gave the order and then watched her skeptically for a moment. Perhaps he was waiting for her to question why she was being deployed on New Year’s Eve, but she was a dedicated agent and with Phil gone she had no reason to want to stay here. 

“I’ll grab my bag and head to the hangar,” she replied and didn’t wait for a response as she moved to head back towards the locker room to grab her go-bag. At least this would keep her busy and distracted. 

She made her way to the Quinjet to find only a co-pilot waiting. She hoped this 0-8-4 didn’t turn out to be dangerous since the director didn’t seem concerned enough to give her any backup. She shrugged her shoulders and stowed her bag in preparation for take-off. She grabbed her tablet to go over the mission specs but sighed at the lack of details. Even for an 0-8-4, there was very little information for her to go on, and she shut the tablet back off and tossed it into her bag. 

She made her way to the cockpit where her co-pilot was waiting and was pleased to see that he had already gone through the pre-flight checklist. She slid into the pilot’s seat and pulled her headset into place. She gave a nod of greeting to the other agent before turning her attention to the instrument panels as she began take-off procedures. 

She was relieved to know that her co-pilot was quiet and not one for small talk as they moved steadily towards their destination. She enjoyed the quiet when she was flying, and the only one who typically dared to disrupt that was Phil. She felt a sense of longing rush over her as she thought back to various moments in the cockpit when he would join her just to ramble about whatever popped into his head at the time. He tried to be quiet occasionally but it typically only lasted a few minutes before he couldn’t hold back anymore and started spewing as many words as he could afford in a breath. 

She really missed him. 

He was her best friend and there was a certain ache that always came when they were apart, but this time there was more to it. She felt hollow like part of her was missing. She didn’t just feel lonely, she felt empty. 

She had finally admitted to herself that she was in love with him. Every time he returned to base from his latest deployment, her heart would race just watching him step off the plane. She’d feel butterflies in her stomach and her brain felt like mush as she tried to think of how to welcome him back without sounding like she’d been desperately waiting for him to come back. 

She had been. Every time.

She’d even counted down the hours and checked the plane's remote GPS feed. More than once she’d had the feed linked to her tablet so that she could excessively check it throughout the day. She felt like a kid watching for Santa Clause, except that she was a fully grown woman who was acting like a child over a man. She justified it to herself that he was the greatest man in the world and she was in love with him so no one could blame her for being eager to see him. The problem is that every time he came home, he left again for weeks at a time. Also, he was completely oblivious to the fact that she was in love with him, and quite obviously had no interest in her in that way. She was fine with that. She didn’t need him to love her back. Real love didn’t work like that. Real love was selfless and didn’t require anything in return. She didn’t require anything in return.

She just wanted to spend time with her best friend which she hadn’t seen in two months. Apparently that was too much to ask.

She sighed quietly to herself as she redirected her mind to the mission. Once she landed the plane, she would have to hike a couple of miles to get to the 0-8-4. It was in a remote location within a heavily wooded area that made it only accessible on foot. The two and a half feet of snow on the ground wouldn’t make it easy to get to either. 

After landing the plane, she went over the mission details with the other agent who would be waiting on the plane. She went over her call sign and what she would signal if things went south and she needed him to call for back up. Once she felt comfortable with the plan, she bundled up and began her hike. 

It was cold and she was struggling to trudge through the snow. What a great way to spend New Years: freezing in the middle of a forest in search of who knows what. Her thoughts that this mission would distract her were not coming to fruition. She had plenty of time to think now. 

She had planned to tell him how she felt at Christmas. She wanted to talk about it and see if maybe he felt the same and wanted to pursue something. Instead, he was still on the hunt for Daisy and even missed her phone call that night. There was a significant time difference between their locations so he just texted her later to say Merry Christmas in case she was already asleep. While considerate, it wasn’t exactly the actions of a man who could be in love with her too and the doubts crept in. Her return text was the last time she’d been able to talk to him and he wouldn’t be able to reach her now to even text ‘Happy New Year’ to her. Wasn’t that just her luck? After years of skirting around her feelings, she was finally ready to own up to them and he was inaccessible. 

She was growing more and more melancholy as she walked and she just wanted the dumb holiday to be over. Her pouting helped the time go by and she looked down at her tracker to make sure she had arrived at the right location for retrieval. 

Cut out in the middle of the woods was a small cabin. From her location, she could check out the area for any potential threats. She could see lights on inside of the cabin and smoke rising steadily from the chimney. Just what had Mace sent her after?

She pulled her I.C.E.R as she slowly approached the cabin. She was careful to pick an approach point that would keep her out of the line of sight from whoever might be inside and allow her to approach undetected. This would go down easier if she had the element of surprise on her side. 

She approached the back door and found it unlocked. She carefully opened it and moved into the warm cabin with I.C.E.R raised at the ready. She moved through the kitchen and made a wide sweep as she prepared to run into whoever was also in the cabin. She pulled the tracker from her pocket and tapped a few buttons until the infrared screen appeared. Only one heat signature was detected on the other side of the wall and she moved with a quiet confidence that she could hold her own against whoever that signal belonged to. 

She slowly opened the door leading into the main area of the cabin and once more raised her I.C.E.R in a ready position as she moved forward. She had only managed one step through the door before she paused and her heart started racing. 

This wasn’t at all what she was expecting to find. 

Her heart was in her throat; and as she took in the candlelit table and soft music, her eyes snapped to the source of that heat signature. 

“Hi,” he said as he stood up from the couch. 

Phil.

“What are you doing here? Are you tracking the 0-8-4?” She asked as she holstered her weapon and tried to connect the dots to figure out how and why he was here.

A blush stole up his cheeks to tint his ears and he rubbed the back of his neck as he replied, “Umm….about that.”

Her arched brow was enough to encourage him to continue and he took a deep breath before explaining, “There is no 0-8-4. I called one in anonymously and made it seem important and potentially dangerous so they’d send you out here to check it out.”

“You called HQ about a fake 0-8-4 that you made up…..so they would send me out here?” She asked and the blush on his cheeks grew deeper. 

“Yeah….it seemed like a solid idea at the time,” he admitted, “but I think it’s gone south and I may have made a mistake.”

Her brow arched again as she tried to work it all out. “Any particular reason for this wild goose chase you’ve sent me on? Were you worried I was bored?….getting rusty and could use a little practice out in the field?”

“I missed you,” he confessed quietly and all the air rushed from her lungs. 

His hand had returned to the back of his neck and he was blushing again as he continued, “I didn’t get to see you for Christmas and….I just really missed you…I didn’t want to miss another holiday and have to wait two more weeks to see you...and Mack said I got all mopey when Mace canceled our orders to head home. I know it was crazy and kind of stupid but I just…”

“I missed you too,” she interrupted and a smile started to tug at the corner of his lips. 

“Yeah?” He asked and when she nodded he continued, “You’re not mad?”

A soft smile spread across her lips as she took a step towards him, “I could have done without the two-mile hike in the snow but…..I guess it was worth it.”

“You guess?” He asked as he took a step towards her. “I made you dinner.”

Her eyes stayed locked on his as she took another step closer. “I don’t see any food.”

“Well…that’s because it’s in the oven keeping warm. I also have candles…which are on the table in clear view,” he retorted and closed the remaining distance. 

She was only a step away now and studied his face as she replied, “I did see the candles…they’re very……romantic.”

“You think so?” He asked as he looked over at the table with a playful glint in his eyes.

“Was that not the feel you were going for?”

“Oh no…” he said as his eyes snapped back to her, “I was definitely trying to pull off a romantic vibe. Just checking to see how successful you think I was.”

Her heart was racing but she was pretty sure she wasn’t reading too much into such an elaborate scheme to get to see her. Still, she wanted to hear him say it so she prompted, “Well…I guess it would help if your intentions for the romantic setting were clear. I’m going to need a little more information before I can properly rate your success.”

“That sounds reasonable,” he agreed with a nod before continuing, “my intention was to be romantic so that I could tell you that I’ve really missed you and ask you out on a date.”

“This isn’t a date?” She inquired with an arched brow.

He smiled as he reached to take her hand in his, “Well…I mean….is it really a date if you had no clue and showed up under false pretenses? That seems a bit sketchy for a first date.”

“You make a good point,” she replied and traced her thumb over the back of the hand that was holding hers.

He was trying to seem casual but the tips of his ears were pink and she watched him with a fond smile as he suggested, “Yeah…so this is just dinner between best friends to ring in the New Year together….and maybe talk about being more in the next year.”

She looked down at their joined hands with a nod of agreement but she was feeling a bit bold so she made a suggestion of her own, “And if we have that talk a little earlier in the evening….does that mean I might get a New Year’s kiss at midnight?”

His eyes widened a little in surprise but a slow smile spread across his face. 

“If I just go ahead and admit that I 100% want to pursue a relationship with you, can I kiss you before midnight?” he counter-offered. 

She smiled and took the final step closer. Her hand slid up his chest to his shoulder and she smiled as his breath hitched a little at her touch. “Hmm…I would be willing to agree with those terms.”

“And if I….”

Her lips pressed against his was a highly effective way of getting him to shut up. She made a mental note of that as her fingers threaded through his hair and he moaned against her mouth. His hands held her hips gently but as she traced her tongue across his bottom lip, they spread to her back to tug her closer. 

“I need to radio in to let Agent Morris know I’ll be a while,” she said as she slowly pulled away to catch her breath a moment later. 

He pressed a kiss to her temple and tugged her back into his arms. “Actually that was Mack’s part of the plan. He’s already rerouting Morris on another mission but graciously agreed for he and I to pick you up for extraction. Unfortunately, your investigation is going to take a while and there was another anonymous 0-8-4 sighting in Miami which just so happens to be close to Yo-yo so the Zephyr can’t get to you till morning.”

“Good thing I found this cabin to hunker down in while I wait for my rescue,” She teased as her arms slid up to wrap around his neck. 

“What are the chances? You must have a guardian angel,” he suggested before pressing a lingering kiss to her neck. 

Her eyes closed and she tilted her head to give him better access. “It seems I do…..and he’s a really great kisser.”

He shrugged his shoulders but continued trailing kisses as he replied, “Ehh….I think I need more practice.”

“Let me help with that,” she offered as her lips found his again. 

“And they say good help is hard to find,” he murmured against her lips.

Hours later he placed another log on the fire to keep it going and slipped carefully back into the bed. He was immediately greeted with her warm body pressed to his and he smiled in contentment. 

“Just to be clear….” He said as she placed her head on his shoulder, “I only set this up to ask for a date.”

He could feel her smile against his skin. “Was this too fast for you?”

“Yeah….twenty years of foreplay wasn’t quite enough. I feel rushed,” he teased and her quiet chuckle vibrated against his shoulder. 

His fingertips delicately traced the back of the hand that rested over his heart and trailed down her arm and to her shoulder. The hum of pleasure that fell from her lips made his eyes close blissfully and he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. 

“I don’t want to leave you again,” he confessed and her heart ached at the thought of another two weeks apart. 

She took a slow breath to try to push past the ache the thought of it brought and worked to focus on the positive, “Well….it’s only two more weeks…and maybe when you get back we can talk Mack into a trade…and maybe I could go out in the field with you for a while.”

He carefully turned onto his side so that he could see her face while they discussed this. “Yeah? You would want to go on deployment?” He asked. He wanted her to be sure it was something she wanted and not just do it for him.

“I would...to have time with you,” she said as she propped her head upon her elbow to be able to see him better. 

“Well…maybe I can just ask to stick around the base for a while,” he offered and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and noted the way she shivered at his touch. He’d waiting so long to be able to touch her like this and so freely. 

She seemed to be considering it but felt the need to ask, “You don’t think you’d get bored and restless stuck on base for a while?”

“I probably would…” he conceded “but I think you could distract me.”

“I know I could,” she confirmed as she leaned in to steal another kiss from his lips.

His hand slid into her hair as he tugged her closer.

“Happy New Year, Melinda,” he managed to whisper against her lips between kisses. 

She decided to let her actions do all the talking as they rang in the new year. 


End file.
